Arkansas Blog

'The Ghastly Outdated Party'

Maureen Dowd scores for a change, with a roundup of all the ways the sex-obsessed Republican Party is catering to a narrower and narrower range of political and religious thought. Notable is the roundup of major Republican figures, including Jeb Bush, who are aghast at the intolerance and the fondness for medieval thinking.

How can the warm, nurturing Catholic Church of my youth now be represented in the public arena by uncharitable nasties like Gingrich and Rick Santorum?

“It makes the party look like it isn’t a modern party,” Rudy Giuliani told CNN’s Erin Burnett, fretting about the candidates’ Cotton Mather attitude about women and gays. “It doesn’t understand the modern world that we live in.”

After a speech in Dallas on Thursday, Jeb Bush also recoiled: “I used to be a conservative, and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective.”